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Florida Textbook Adoption Process May Be In For Big Changes

Fewer people will approve what textbooks Florida students should use under a bill that dramatically changes the state’s textbook adoption procedures.

The measure eliminates the current process of using statewide committees of teachers, school board members, administrators and ordinary citizens to select textbooks, and instead gives more power to the Education Commissioner.

Teachers and school board members critical of the change say it weakens the voice of teachers and the public in the textbook adoption process, opening it up to a potentially more politics and corruption. But others defend the change as a minor tweak that saves the state money and shifts responsibility for textbook reviews to experts.

The proposal (SB 2120) is contained in an education budget bill that will likely be approved by Gov. Rick Scott this month. The bill requires the commissioner to select three state or national “subject matter experts” to review books for each subject, with only two reviewing the books and the third acting as a tie-breaker.

Then, school districts can appoint one teacher or district curriculum specialist to review a handful of the recommendations by the state reviewers. Ultimately, school districts have to spend 50 percent of their textbook budgets on books approved by the state reviewers, giving districts the ability to stray beyond the list.

The Department of Education pushed for this change as a way of correcting what was seen as an arduous and expensive process of reviewing textbooks. Mary Jane Tappen, who is in charge of curriculum for the department, said it had become difficult finding people to sit on the committees.

“It’s volunteer and it requires a lot of independent time reviewing resources, followed by face-to-face meetings away from home,” Tappen said. And it is costly for an education department facing budget cuts. The department had to reimburse districts for the cost of substitute teachers and pay for travel and a per diem.

“We felt like going to a review process where first experts review the content to ensure it is error free and factual, followed by every district in the state participating in a second review,” Tappen said.

But some who have sat on these textbook committees say they like having the ability to work with a diverse group of people and worry that with fewer reviewers the process will be more vulnerable to corruption or a particular political slant. In Texas, for instance, the textbook selection process has been rife with conflict for years, with battles over whether to include references to evolution in science textbooks and emphasize history with a conservative slant.

“We are going to see what happened in Texas, with curriculum being challenged and changed,” said April Griffin, a school board member from the Hillsborough County School District who also served on the state adoption committee for high school mathematics textbooks more than a year ago. “We are going to see favoritism shown for certain companies. I think we are going to lose the voice of the front lines in this process.”

Griffin, as well as other past textbook reviewers, agreed that it could be a daunting task. Reviewers describe entire rooms taken up with boxes and hours spent pouring over dry textbook material.

“If you want to do a thorough job you need to really devote some time to reviewing the materials,” said Lisa Greco, a curriculum supervisor for the Osceola County School District who helped pick high school mathematics books two years ago. “One of the concerns that I really had was guarding against myself saying ‘this a big nationally recognized publisher, don’t spend too much time on it.’ ”

But some reviewers say the process is enhanced having more people in it. Under current law, the committees have to include a “lay citizen” as well as teachers and school board members. Some of the people involved in textbook selection in recent years have included a personal injury lawyer and a dentist.

“This is government in the sunshine and a volunteer committee that is doing public good,” said Daniel McFarland, a high school science teacher in Hillsborough County who served recently on a state committee that picked biology and environmental science textbooks. “Every time you take one of those citizen committees and you move it to the back of one of those smoke-filled rooms we are less transparent, we are less accountable.”

Rep. Marti Coley, who helped craft the education budget that included the textbook changes, said concerns about public input were not brought to her attention until after the bill had been approved by the Legislature. Coley said there are copyright issues that prevent the department from wholesale posting curriculum online for review.

Coley, R-Marianna, said she will work with the department to include more public comment. “This is a valid concern and we will work to try to figure out a way to allow the public to comment on that process,” Coley said.

The Florida Education Association said the new process could work if those appointed reviewers “are highly qualified and seek out different perspectives,” according to spokesman Mark Pudlow. He said either approach in theory could work fine, but by allowing the Commissioner to appoint reviewers it could lead to a “highly politicized DOE” that appoints reviewers who share the same political philosophies.

At least one school administrator who had reviewed textbooks said the new approach wasn’t worrisome.

With a planned conversion to a national standard for curriculum in 2014, it becomes less important to have teachers and other reviewers who are intimately familiar with Florida standards, said John Miller, a curriculum administrator for the Polk County School District.

“Given the fact that we are moving to (national standards), I tend to think this is a good move,” Miller said.

Florida has typically been a powerful player in the textbook publishing industry because it is one of the more populous states. It’s more cost effective for publishers to write books nationally based on standards of the bigger states.

Sen. Bill Montford, head of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said initially the proposal caused the group “some concern.”

The bill permits school districts to organize their own textbook adoption committees, but it weakens their ability to influence the state approved list by lowering the number of reviewers.

Districts have to use the state’s list for some, but not all, of their textbook purchases.

“We have to have confidence in the commissioner that he will appoint the right people,” Montford said. “The old way served us well. We are moving so rapidly and this particular change, the jury is still out.”

By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida